After the constant hum of activity of the last few weeks, I finally got a chance to spend time in my craft room and make some stuff.  I haven't started on my big holiday card-making blitz, but I needed a couple of Chanukah cards immediately, and with that as my goal, I got to work.

Tasks like this, where I feel like I'm starting from nothing, often overwhelm me.  But this time I kept moving forward aided by the fact that I don't actually have very many Jewish-themed stamps, and I have a pile of inspiration cards saved in Evernote and Pinterest.  The card that grabbed my attention last night was this one by Heather Nichols of Pine is Here: 

Heather uses the emboss resist technique which is simply stamping an image, embossing it with embossing powder and a heat tool, inking over it, and wiping away the ink from your stamped image.  Because embossing powder, once melted, is magical, the ink won't stick to its plastic-y surface.

I've long loved the cards people create with this technique, but as I don't really have good, sticky ink or good heat embossing skills, I have shied away from it.  But I have new power outlets in my craft room, a neglected heat tool, and a ton of embossing powder, so I thought I'd give it a go.

I chose these stamps:  Star by PSX; Sentiment by Stampinks, Unlimited (both companies now out of business!)

I wanted a simple design - something like this, but not crooked...

I stamped the image and the sentiment with white pigment ink, and embossed with white embossing powder.  I inked over both in blue dye ink, and used a damp baby wipe to carefully wipe the blue ink off of the stamped images.  The image below doesn't really capture how the white embossed bits popped, but they did!

Here's the final card, mounted on navy duplex card stock.

I definitely want to keep working on emboss resist.  With practice and newer, stickier inks, this might become a quick and easy card-making technique for me.

What are you making this holiday season?